I can't help but notice that Vlaada's name is nowhere on any pictures of the box front or back that I've seen, even though it's quite prominent on the original Codenames. Makes me think he doesn't altogether approve of the need for such a product.

Vlaada's company (CGE) did not produce this game. Target designed it, did all the artwork, and they produced it.Vlaada / CGE gave their permission.

I see Tomáš Kučerovský still listed under Illustration, because they reused the assassin tile art (not sure whether the word and answer key count as illustration or graphic design), but with the addition of Petr Kudriavtcev, who seems to live in Russia. Do you mean that Target contracted the art out to Russia, while they printed the game in the US, according to the box? If so, that's disappointing," he said, avoiding going further in the direction of politics.

I can't help but notice that Vlaada's name is nowhere on any pictures of the box front or back that I've seen, even though it's quite prominent on the original Codenames. Makes me think he doesn't altogether approve of the need for such a product.

So I wrote up a reply in which I argued that this was more of a corporate "credit nobody" decision, along with the suggestions that Target's target market () doesn't care about designers and even might be scared off by a scary furrin name on the box. I also worked in a rather weak reference to The IT Crowd, noted that Vlaada's name does appear in the credits section of the rules when he presumably could have had it left out (which is, after all, the whole point behind the name Alan Smithee), then finished with a wry suggestion that maybe we could use this international series of tubes to ask Vlaada directly, rather than try to infer his feelings. And I swear I hit Submit, not Preview, when finished, so I'm going to claim that BGG ate my original post, not that I hit the wrong button.